


A Sentimental Gift

by Maeve_of_Winter



Category: The Trixie Belden Mysteries - Julie Campbell Tatham & Kathryn Kenny
Genre: Alpha!Jim, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Arranged Marriage, Courtship, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Omega!Dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-21 20:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15565581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maeve_of_Winter/pseuds/Maeve_of_Winter
Summary: Jim is an Alpha who's trying to court Dan. Dan is an Omega who remains utterly unimpressed by Jim. But  a gift of an ID bracelet just might make all the difference.





	A Sentimental Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rareslashex_mod](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rareslashex_mod/gifts).



It took didn’t take long after Regan’s nephew Dan arrived, coming into Regan’s custody due to the recent death of his mother, for Maddie and Matt to arrange his marriage to Jim. As Jim was one of the few remaining Alphas, and Dan was discovered to be one of the very, very few remaining Omegas, in the Wheelers’ eyes it was the only proper that union could proceed, especially for someone of Jim’s status. It didn’t matter that Dan was fourteen and Jim was sixteen—his parents were adamant that the agreement between the families be established now, even if the two of them weren’t to marry until Dan graduated college.

“We would be fools to allow you to waste this opportunity,” Matt told Jim earnestly, sitting alongside his wife, their sofa opposite Jim’s. “We want to do everything we can to ensure you’re bonded with an Omega, Jim.”

Jim nodded. It had always been the hope of his birth parents that he would one day find an Omega to marry—going through with it and fulfilling their wish would be a tribute to their memory. “I agree. I want this marriage.”

And maybe the words weren’t entirely true, but he could learn to want this marriage to actually go forward, he was sure of it. Besides, Matt and Maddie’s advice and decisions for him had always been sound before. Questioning them about this matter, in Jim’s mind, would be a sign of disrespect and ingratitude.

“We’ll help you, of course, with whatever you’ll need for courting him,” Maddie added, her dangling earrings glinting beneath the light of the chandelier. “Don’t think for a moment that you can become complacent just because the two of you are already engaged.” Dan had eventually decided to accept the Wheelers’ proposal when they promised to pay for all of his desired higher education if he married Jim. “We don’t want Dan to slip by you or eventually opt to elope another Alpha or some such. I can’t emphasize enough that he could be a once in a lifetime chance for you—and we wouldn’t be fulfilling our duties as parents if we didn’t make every effort possible to help you procure an Omega. You’ll need to begin practicing the engagement rituals straight away.”

Matt nodded. “Now, as for your initial offering to him to seal the agreement, Maddie and I have already gone forth and purchased supplies for Dan. All of the clothing and gear he’ll need if he continues working on the game preserve.” There was a note of displeasure in Matthew’s voice; he and Dan had already argued about Dan’s post as assistant gamekeeper, Matt insistent that such a labor position was completely unacceptable for an Omega, while Dan remained firm that he would keep his job and remain with Elijah Maypenny until he left for college. Through pure stubbornness, Dan had won.  

“We saw his ensemble for the engagement meeting,” Maddie remarked. “It was . . . insufficient.” She had been shocked when she’d seen the threadbare sweater and torn jeans that Dan had worn to the meeting, and appalled when she realized that his only jacket and lone pair of boots were both completely unsuited to winter weather, putting his health and wellbeing at risk. It would simply not do for neither her nor anyone else to have one of the only Omegas left stuck wearing clothing that would do nothing to protect him from the cold. “We’ve had all manner of attire purchased for him, from substantial clothing for his work to formal dress that he’ll need for attending events with you. All of it has arrived now, and we both believe you should be the one to present it to him.”

“I want you to go to that cabin and personally hand him a decent coat,” Matt told Jim. “Show him that you’re a provider, that you have the means to care for him.”

Jim did as instructed, loading up his white Escalade with the heavy trunks of clothing, assisted by Tom and Regan, and then driving through the game preserve to deposit them at the Maypenny cabin. Dan was the only one home when Jim arrived and insisted on helping him carry the trunks upstairs to his bedroom, rejecting Jim’s protests that he shouldn’t strain himself.

“Heavy lifting is a regular part of my job,” Dan informed him, his glacier blue eyes skeptically surveying the three trunks in the back of Jim’s car. As all Omega males were said to be, he was more pretty than handsome, with fine features, a flawless ivory complexion, and a sleek, slim build that was wiry rather than muscular. He was beautiful in a cold way that made him seem more like a carved marble statue than a human being. “I wish you’d stop treating me like I were incapable, Jim.”

Knowing he was upsetting his Omega brought Jim to instantly clamp his mouth shut, and he worked with Dan to lug the three trunks upstairs. Once they were all there, Jim wasted no time in undoing the latches on one and withdrawing a heavy parka, the best on the market, that was a brilliant sapphire blue. Hoping for the best, he offered it to Dan.

“It’s insulated and waterproof,” he told him with a note of satisfaction. He glanced over at where Dan’s worn black leather jacket, a single piece of personality in a bedroom that had all of the character of a hotel room, hung on the chair of his pine desk. “You won’t have to wear that tattered old thing anymore,” he said, guessing Dan would be relieved for the change. “Trust me, this one will do a much better job at keeping you warm.”

Dan’s pale blue eyes hardened into chips of ice. “And what if I want to keep wearing it? ‘That tattered old thing’ just so happens to be one of my only mementos of my dead father.”

Jim felt like he’d just been sucker-punched as his faux pas registered. “Oh,” he said awkwardly. He looked down at the top of the line coat purchased for Dan without a second thought. “Well, uh, I guess this one would go nicely with your eyes,” he managed, desperately scrabbling for something to say.

Dan just looked at him, his gaze steely, and Jim left not much later.

Jim’s other ventures into gift-giving, a vital area of the engagement ritual for an Alpha to an Omega, went just as poorly. Knowing how fond Trixie had become of white orchids after he gave her a corsage for Diana’s Valentine’s Day dance, Jim decided to order Dan an entire bouquet of the blooms, tied with a red satin ribbon. He waited at the Maypenny cabin to give them to Dan when he returned from patrol, upon which they were promptly devoured by Spartan when Jim tried to present them. And an attempted offer of a BWG jacket was promptly refused.

“Don’t be presumptuous,” Dan told him flatly, tossing the wrapper back on the jacket and thrusting the parcel back at Jim. “Don’t think that just because we’re engaged, I’m going to be sharing all of your interests. I’m staying my own person. That’s why I’m still living the preserve than at your manor,” he added, providing the first insight to his line of thinking that Jim had ever gleaned.

That was the problem. Between the long hours demanded of a gamekeeper and Dan’s own inscrutable nature, Jim struggled to get to know Dan or find any kind of a gift that would be meaningful to him. He’d hoped, if Dan were to accept the proffered membership into the BWGs, that they’d become more familiar with one another, and then he’d have a better idea of Dan’s tastes. However, that was not to be.

It was growing dark when he returned with Jupiter to the stables that evening, feeling more exasperated with this courting than ever. Weary of disappointment after disappointment, Jim couldn’t help but think it would now probably be a greater tribute to his birth parents’ memories if he just gave up and spared himself the trouble of trying to woo Dan, even if he was the only Omega he might ever meet.

Regan took one look at his face and guessed the source of his woes. “Dan?”

Jim snorted. “Yeah. He’s none too impressed with me at the moment. Though I’m not feeling too fond of him, either, right now—I know Mother and Dad were concerned about him working outside in the snow and rain, but it seems to me that he’s cold-blooded enough to survive for weeks in the Arctic with just that leather jacket of his.”

“He’s a prickly sort,” Regan agreed. “And I’m sorry that you’re getting the brunt of it. But try to be patient with him. I’m not sure if he knows what to think of anyone suddenly paying as much attention to him as you and your folks are. He’s probably just taken aback.”

A self-deprecating smile tugged up Jim’s lips. “My parents think I’m blundering around,” he admitted. “Not being able to ever get Dan’s approval on a single thing I’ve given him so far. Or tried to give him, for that matter,” he remarked ruefully, removing the refused BWG jacket from his saddlebag.

“Ice skates,” Regan said conclusively, and Jim whipped around to stare at him.

“What?” he demanded incredulously.

“Dan likes ice skating,” Regan explained. “He mentioned it to me when I first brought him here and he saw the lake. And I don’t think he has a pair of skates. I was going to get him some, but . . .” he raised his coppery eyebrows at Jim. “I think you need to work your way into his good graces right now more than I do.”

“Ice skates,” Jim repeated, already thinking. He’d bought his own pair of skates from a company in Sheffield, England that crafted some of the finest skates in the world, so masterful that Olympic figure-skaters used them.

Time to order a pair for Dan.

“Thank you!” he called to Regan, already rushing out of the stables.

The skates lived up to their state of the art reputation, with gleaming silver blades and sturdy, softly polished black leather. And when Jim proudly presented them to Dan, it was the first time that he’d seen Dan look even remotely happy.

“Beautiful,” Dan murmured, ghosting his fingers over the blade, barely making contact with the steel. He glanced up at Jim, a certain softness to his face that Jim had never witnessed manifest before. “You know, my parents and I had a tradition where we would go ice skating together every year on Christmas Day. Even this past year, when my father was already gone . . . “ he traced a finger down the eyelets on one of the skates. “My mother and I still went together.”

Though he ached for something to say, something to comfort Dan, Jim was at a loss. He knew the moment Dan described was probably one of the last happy memories he’d shared with his mother—according to what Matt and Maddie had said, she’d caught pneumonia and died of complications shortly in early January. It was nearly April now, not that one could tell from the weather, which remained just as bitterly cold as it had been in the winter months before it.

Determined to lend some kind of assurance to Dan, Jim hesitated a moment, but then reached out and gave Dan’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “If you’d ever want to go ice skating with someone again, I’m always up for taking a few turns around the ice with you.”

Surprise briefly flashed across Dan’s face, but then he smiled at Jim. Not once having seen Dan smile before, Jim was amazed at how much it transformed his face, making him look much younger and happier than he usually did. With how serious and cynical Dan acted, it was often entirely too easy to forget that he was only fourteen years old.

“We could go now,” Dan suggested, a considering expression on his face as he looked at Jim. “If you have the time.”

Victory coursed through Jim, delighted at finally having impressed Dan after his many failures, and he gestured toward Jupiter, who was waiting impatiently by the porch, his tail swishing. “C’mon. We can ride double.”

It was with no small amount of satisfaction that Jim rode back to the Manor House grounds, Dan’s arms wrapped securely around his waist and his warm body pressing into his back. He wasted no time in retrieving his skates from the clubhouse and lacing them on.

Dan turned out to be a demon on the ice, and Jim was amazed by his talent.

“I don’t believe it,” he said at the end of nearly an hour out on the lake together. “Not even Trixie and Honey are as good as you are, and they spend hours out here every week.”

“You’re not bad yourself,” Dan replied lightly, which was the closest remark to a compliment he’d ever expressed to Jim.

 “Something I wanted to ask,” Jim began cautiously, not wanting Dan to revert back to his previously brusque persona. “The Belden siblings’ uncle, Andrew Belden, invited us BWGs out to Iowa for spring break. I was wondering—”

“Your parents were wondering,” Dan corrected him, sarcastic amusement glinting in his icy eyes. “Let me guess: they’ve maneuvered the Beldens into giving me an invitation as well?”

“They were just looking out for you,” Jim said defensively. “They want you to be included. Besides, I want you to come, too.”

“Well, please express my most sincere regrets to the Belden family, but I won’t be joining you,” Dan informed him, pulling his work boots back on and then standing. “I think I could use a breaking from this courting stuff, and I’ve no doubt that you could as well. And besides,” he cast a small but genuine small over his shoulder at Jim as he began to walk away. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”  

Jim watched him go, an unexpected realization dawning on him: in this moment, he was actually feeling fond of Dan already, not just thinking of him as a challenge to overcome as part of his duty or obligation to his parents, either set of them. During the time he’d spent with Dan out on the ice, he’d genuinely enjoyed himself.

He went to Iowa with his friends and without Dan, much to Matt and Maddie’s chagrin, but at their urgining, selected a gift to bring back for him. Now again out of ideas of what Dan would like, Jim’s choice was a gift that was more about sentiment than individual taste: a platinum ID bracelet engraved with Jim’s own name. He’d considered a silver band at first but then thought it would tarnish too quickly.

“How antiquated,” Dan said, surveying the bracelet with disdain when Jim handed it to him. “I’m supposed to wear your name, like I’m some kind of dog you own? Do you think I’m chattel?”

“Absolutely not,” Jim said firmly. “I’m giving it to you because I want you to have a piece of me with you. You really liked being with me when we were ice skating out on the lake—I want you to see my name every day and think of that time together, the fun we’ve had.” Desperately trying to justify himself, not wanting the situation with Dan to turn into an endless cycle of one step forward, two steps back, he added, “It’s the only time I’ve ever seen you _have_ fun.”

Dan looked at him for a moment, really, truly looked, studying Jim like he was some kind of puzzling specimen that was totally unfamiliar to him. After several moments of silence and Dan’s worryingly intense gaze raking over him, Jim shifted uncomfortably under the weight of his stare, suddenly becoming aware of how Dan’s cold beauty seemed a touch unsettling when one was subject to his unrelenting scrutiny.

But then Dan smiled softly, his face transforming again. “You know, I’ve always thought you were something of a self-centered boor, with your parents being even worse,” he admitted offhandedly. “I just found it inexcusably crass that I came here because my mother had just died, and I was trying to mourn her, but your parents were swanning about and endlessly pestering my uncle and I about me marrying you. The only reason I agreed at first was because I just wanted your family to leave me in peace. And I wouldn’t go to live at your mansion because I didn’t want all of you to keep intruding on my grief.”

Jim wrenched his jaw open, ready to leap to his parents’ defense, but Dan held up a hand to silence him and continued without pausing.

“But now I’m wondering if I misjudged you,” Dan went on. “Believe me, I still think it was really goddamn rude that my mother was barely cold in her grave before you began waltzing over here with all kinds of presents to effectively bribe me into a marriage. But when you take a moment to consider the feelings of other people, I have to say that you’re not half bad of a guy.”

While it wasn’t exactly a glowing endorsement, Jim decided he would take what he could get. “Well, thank you for that. And I’m sorry,” he said sincerely, “if we were being insensitive to your loss or if it ever seemed like we were trying to bribe you.”

“I appreciate your apology,” Dan replied. He arched an eyebrow. “But I do hope you’ll live up to it.”

“We will,” Jim vowed. “I will.” Recalling how much Dan had enjoyed their afternoon at the lake together, he decided to invite him on another outing. Winter was finally over—what better way to spend time together than enjoying the long-awaited spring weather?

“I have to go down to Martin’s Marsh this weekend and gather some samples for an AP bio project,” he told him. “How would you like to come with me? We could bike down there together,” he added impulsively. “I could get our cook to prepare a picnic lunch.”

Dan favored him with a smile, a look that Jim realized he could get used to. “I’d like that. As long as I get my own bike, though. Don’t expect me to ride on your handlebars.”

Jim laughed. “You’ll have your own bike,” he promised.

A certain lightness spread through his body as Jim exchanged goodbyes with Dan and then swung back into Jupe’s saddle for the ride home. He was looking forward to their day together, he realized. Not resigned to failure, not steeling himself for Dan’s frigid disapproval. He honestly thought that the day he would spend with Dan would be a good one. Dan didn’t seem to mind him, not when he was simply spending time with him instead of giving him endless baubles and trinkets.

For the first time, Jim found himself thinking of a future with Dan, thinking that he could have a future with Dan.

And if they did have that future together, if Dan did end up going through with the marriage, they’d use those rings from Aunt Nell’s music box for their wedding rings, Jim resolved. The emerald ring would be for Dan and the ruby one for himself. Like the ID bracelet, the rings were a part of Jim's history, a part of his heritage, a part of himself that he would want Dan to have.

He thought his parents, along with Aunt Nell and Uncle James, would have liked that. But most importantly, he thought Dan would like it as well.


End file.
